Waste Core Strategy and Development Control Policies
The Waste Core Strategy will set out overall approach to future waste management in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham. Key issues will include estimates of how much waste capacity needs to be provided to meet expected demand over the next 10-15 years, what types of sites are suitable and where in broad terms should new or extended waste management sites be located. Recent revisions to the new planning system now mean that the Core Strategy may allocate sites.
The Waste Development Control Policies Document will be prepared at the same time as the Core Strategy. This document will set out policies for controlling development and making sure environmental standards are met. Policies will therefore cover issues such as traffic, noise and dust as well as policies aimed at protecting important wildlife, heritage sites and landscapes.
Current Progress
Both documents are to be produced together and will be prepared jointly by the County Council and Nottingham City Council. Each document must go through a series of informal and formal public consultation stages and finally an independent examination before it can be adopted by the County and City Councils. Once adopted, these documents will replace the relevant parts of the Waste Local Plan.
Preparation of these documents is now at the informal ‘issues and options’ stage. A general consultation on these ran between October and December 2006. Around 1400 comments were received which will help inform subsequent stages. For details of this consultation exercise and to view documents on line please click below:
Issues and Options Consultation - Documents to View on line
Issues and Options - Further Work
Many waste and other core strategies have hit serious problems at the independent examination stage and have either been withdrawn or declared unsound by the planning inspector. A general problem seems to be that strategies have not been sufficiently spatial, were too broad brush or did not make important decisions on where strategic sites should be located. Inadequate consideration of options has also been a concern. In response to these problems the Government has issued new advice which the County and City Councils will need to take into account before proceeding to the next ‘preferred options’ stage.
For our Core Strategy this will mean additional evidence gathering and consultation on issues and options. This may lead to the inclusion of strategic sites within the Waste Core Strategy. All consultees and any other parties who made comments on the first issues and options consultation will be advised of any further consultation. This timetable set out in the current Minerals and Waste Development Scheme which was prepared before these matters could be taken into account is now out of date and will need to be revised.
What happens next?
Once further consultation on issues and options has been completed, this will enable us to decide on our 'preferred options'. These will be published for informal consultation.
We will then draft a final ‘Submission Draft Document’ taking account of any representations we receive on the preferred options . This draft will be subject to further formal consultation and an independent public examination in front of a Government appointed Inspector. The Inspector will look at the overall soundness of the document as well as any representations made on the draft document. Any recommendations made by the Inspector will be binding. The Councils will then adopt the document including any recommendations made by the Inspector.
